[m_mueller]

It goes both ways though. You can use the intent of a law as a defense in court. It gives more power to judges to interpret things, which can be seen as a disadvantage. Overall I'd still rather have that - in the American legal system I feel like the law being a sword of damocles over my head, constantly waiting for me to inadvertently walk into a trap, while with a European civil law system I get the feeling that the system works for me as long as I don't have bad intents (i.e. as long as my inner moral matches that of the culture I'm in).